Stochastic unfolding of nanoconfined DNA: Experiments, model and Bayesian analysis
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2018

Nanochannels provide a means for detailed experiments on the effect of confinement on biomacro-molecules, such as DNA. Here we introduce a model for the complete unfolding of DNA from the circular to linear configuration. Two main ingredients are the entropic unfolding force and the friction coefficient for the unfolding process, and we describe the associated dynamics by a non-linear Langevin equation. By analyzing experimental data where DNA molecules are photo-cut and unfolded inside a nanochannel, our model allows us to extract values for the unfolding force as well as the friction coefficient for the first time. In order to extract numerical values for these physical quantities, we employ a recently introduced Bayesian inference framework. We find that the determined unfolding force is in agreement with estimates from a simple Flory-type argument. The estimated friction coefficient is in agreement with theoretical estimates for motion of a cylinder in a channel. We further validate the estimated friction constant by extracting this parameter from DNA's center-of -mass motion before and after unfolding, yielding decent agreement. We provide publically available software for performing the required image and Bayesian analysis. Published by AIP Publishing.

Författare

Jens Krog

Syddansk Universitet

Lunds universitet

Mohammadreza Alizadehheidari

Chalmers, Biologi och bioteknik, Kemisk biologi

Erik Werner

Göteborgs universitet

Santosh Kumar Bikarolla

Chalmers, Biologi och bioteknik, Kemisk biologi

Jonas O. Tegenfeldt

Lunds universitet

Bernhard Mehlig

Göteborgs universitet

Michael A. Lomholt

Syddansk Universitet

Fredrik Westerlund

Chalmers, Biologi och bioteknik, Kemisk biologi

Tobias Ambjornsson

Lunds universitet

Journal of Chemical Physics

0021-9606 (ISSN) 1089-7690 (eISSN)

Vol. 149 21 215101

Styrkeområden

Nanovetenskap och nanoteknik (SO 2010-2017, EI 2018-)

Ämneskategorier

Teknisk mekanik

Biofysik

Sannolikhetsteori och statistik

DOI

10.1063/1.5051319

PubMed

30525714

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2020-06-28